New NFL Rules for 2016 Season

[iacas]

• The line of scrimmage for extra-point tries will stay at the 15-yard line.
• Offensive and defensive play callers can communicate directly with players, whether or not they’re upstairs in the coaches’ booth.
• All chop blocks are illegal.
• A player who is penalized twice in one game for certain types of unsportsmanlike conduct fouls can be ejected. One year only.
• The horse collar rule was expanded to include when a defender grabs the jersey at the name plate or above and pulls a runner toward the ground.
• The spot after a touchback is now the 25-yard line. One year only.
• There will now be a foul called for delay of game when a team attempts to call a timeout when it is not permitted to do so.
• No more 5-yard penalty for an eligible receiver illegally touching a forward pass after being out of bounds and re-establishing himself inbounds. Makes it a loss of down.
• No more multiple spots of enforcement for a double foul after a change of possession.

I bolded what I thought were the bigger ones. The NFL is basically trying to eliminate running the ball back, and may be on the path toward eliminating kickoffs altogether.

[Golfingdad]

11 minutes ago, iacas said:

• The line of scrimmage for extra-point tries will stay at the 15-yard line.

I was a tiny bit disappointed in how little this rule change affected anything last year.  I thought they'd miss more one-pointers (they didn't) which might then lead to more attempted two-pointers (nope) and then change, ever so slightly the dynamic of the game.

[jsgolfer]

11 minutes ago, iacas said:

• The line of scrimmage for extra-point tries will stay at the 15-yard line.
• Offensive and defensive play callers can communicate directly with players, whether or not they’re upstairs in the coaches’ booth.
• All chop blocks are illegal.
• A player who is penalized twice in one game for certain types of unsportsmanlike conduct fouls can be ejected. One year only.
• The horse collar rule was expanded to include when a defender grabs the jersey at the name plate or above and pulls a runner toward the ground.
• The spot after a touchback is now the 25-yard line. One year only.
• There will now be a foul called for delay of game when a team attempts to call a timeout when it is not permitted to do so.
• No more 5-yard penalty for an eligible receiver illegally touching a forward pass after being out of bounds and re-establishing himself inbounds. Makes it a loss of down.
• No more multiple spots of enforcement for a double foul after a change of possession.

I bolded what I thought were the bigger ones. The NFL is basically trying to eliminate running the ball back, and may be on the path toward eliminating kickoffs altogether.

Chop Blocks being illegal is good.  More to protect players from injury won't hurt the product.

Not sure about the ejection for unsportsmanlike conduct.  Doesn't appear that it is really been an issue, other than the Odell Beckham and Josh Norman fiasco last year.  If it has been an issue, outside that one case, I haven't seen it in any of the games I've watched over the last several years.  

Starting at the 25 yard line is pretty good for most teams, i think I saw a stat before that the average starting spot is the 23 yard line for kickoffs.  So you would think that most teams might take that statistical advantage.  

I liked the change of extra-point tries from last year. 

I agree the other changes don't really mean much.

[JetFan1983]

Deadspin thinks it will increase returns, but we'll see. 

[jsgolfer]

3 minutes ago, JetFan1983 said:

Deadspin thinks it will increase returns, but we'll see. 

Yeah, I just saw that mentioned on ProFootballTalk.  I guess kickers could try to hit high short kicks, but couldn't they do that now and not sure I noticed this?  It's a one year try, so we'll see.   

[boogielicious]

18 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

I was a tiny bit disappointed in how little this rule change affected anything last year.  I thought they'd miss more one-pointers (they didn't) which might then lead to more attempted two-pointers (nope) and then change, ever so slightly the dynamic of the game.

Um, the Pats lost the AFC Championship game on a missed extra point. I'd say it was an important change. I'm sure Denver fans like it now.

[saevel25]

15 minutes ago, iacas said:

• All chop blocks are illegal.

I like this rule.

18 minutes ago, iacas said:

• A player who is penalized twice in one game for certain types of unsportsmanlike conduct fouls can be ejected. One year only.

I have no issue with this as long as its for something like intentional.

18 minutes ago, iacas said:

• The spot after a touchback is now the 25-yard line. One year only.

Not that big of a deal, I think.

1 minute ago, JetFan1983 said:

Deadspin thinks it will increase returns, but we'll see.

That is what Ohio State does. They teach their kickers to land the ball inside the 5 yard line with lots of hang time. Ohio State has averaged opponents 15-17 yards per return on kick offs the last 3 seasons. The opponents typically get to the 19-20 yards line on average.

[iacas]

1 hour ago, Golfingdad said:

I was a tiny bit disappointed in how little this rule change affected anything last year.  I thought they'd miss more one-pointers (they didn't) which might then lead to more attempted two-pointers (nope) and then change, ever so slightly the dynamic of the game.

Do you have the numbers on that?

The Steelers, IIRC, went for more two-pointers and kickers missed more PATs league-wide, I think.

[pumaAttack]

1 hour ago, Golfingdad said:

I was a tiny bit disappointed in how little this rule change affected anything last year.  I thought they'd miss more one-pointers (they didn't) which might then lead to more attempted two-pointers (nope) and then change, ever so slightly the dynamic of the game.

It affected the AFC Championship game, a lot.

[Golfingdad]

33 minutes ago, iacas said:

Do you have the numbers on that?

The Steelers, IIRC, went for more two-pointers and kickers missed more PATs league-wide, I think.

No, but I thought I heard them say at one point near the end of the season that the rate of made PATs was as high as before (the Pats flub in the playoffs notwithstanding).  I'll try to find some info.

EDIT: league wide it definitely made a difference, I was (way) wrong about that.  In 2015, 5 teams made 100% of their extra points, whereas in 2014, only 6 teams DIDN'T make 100% of their extra points.  In 2015 the worst make percentage was 82, and in 2014 it was 94.

So either I heard the stat in regards to NE only (52/52 for the regular season) OR maybe I just remember them saying that the change didn't increase the number of attempted 2 pointers significantly. Not sure about that yet though.

[pumaAttack]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

The NFL is basically trying to eliminate running the ball back, and may be on the path toward eliminating kickoffs altogether.

I can't see that happening.  What would you do with onside attempts?  Whether planned or surprise attempts.  Also squib kicks to eat up clock.

[Golfingdad]

4 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

I can't see that happening.  What would you do with onside attempts?  Whether planned or surprise attempts.  Also squib kicks to eat up clock.

If it got to that point, I think they'd probably do something similar to extra points; make it the kicking teams option but make it undesirable to want to kick if you aren't planning on doing an onside kick.  Like, require then kick to be from the 25 or 20.

[JetFan1983]

18 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

No, but I thought I heard them say at one point near the end of the season that the rate of made PATs was as high as before (the Pats flub in the playoffs notwithstanding).  I'll try to find some info.

Hmm, yea that'd be interesting to see if you have those numbers about later in the season. The overall numbers though were pretty dramatically different. 

Not including blocked attempts, there were 59 missed XPs last year. There were 7 total missed XPs the previous four seasons combined. 

http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/team-extra-point-statistics/2015/

Also, there were 59 two point conversion attempts in 2014, but that rose to 94 in 2015. 

1 hour ago, saevel25 said:

 

That is what Ohio State does. They teach their kickers to land the ball inside the 5 yard line with lots of hang time. Ohio State has averaged opponents 15-17 yards per return on kick offs the last 3 seasons. The opponents typically get to the 19-20 yards line on average.

I'm sure a bunch of teams will try to do that. Whether it works against pros or not, I don't know, but it's definitely worth NFL teams trying out. 

[Big Lex]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

The NFL is basically trying to eliminate running the ball back, and may be on the path toward eliminating kickoffs altogether.

Good. This would probably prevent injuries. I'm sure someone somewhere is keeping stats, but I guess that injuries, probably serious injuries, occur much more frequently on these plays.

[pumaAttack]

9 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

If it got to that point, I think they'd probably do something similar to extra points; make it the kicking teams option but make it undesirable to want to kick if you aren't planning on doing an onside kick.  Like, require then kick to be from the 25 or 20.

That would eliminate the surprise onside kick.  Which can really change the momentum of a game. It would be a shame to get rid of that aspect of the sport.

[Big Lex]

14 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

I can't see that happening.  What would you do with onside attempts?  Whether planned or surprise attempts.  Also squib kicks to eat up clock.

 

1 minute ago, Big Lex said:

Good. This would probably prevent injuries. I'm sure someone somewhere is keeping stats, but I guess that injuries, probably serious injuries, occur much more frequently on these plays.

I think they are trying to prevent unnecessary injuries. But your point about onside kicks is excellent.  I don't know....maybe there is a way to eliminate kickoff returns?  

[pumaAttack]

3 minutes ago, Big Lex said:

 

I think they are trying to prevent unnecessary injuries. But your point about onside kicks is excellent.  I don't know....maybe there is a way to eliminate kickoff returns?  

Maybe a rule that if the ball carries into the endzone, it is automatically a touchback.

[Abu3baid]

3 minutes ago, Big Lex said:

 

I think they are trying to prevent unnecessary injuries. But your point about onside kicks is excellent.  I don't know....maybe there is a way to eliminate kickoff returns?  

Yeah, how about you have to play the ball from the spot where you control the ball after the kick.  If the kicker kicks it OB penalty anyway, if it goes in end zone then 25 and any other spot that's where it's played from.. That would make kicking a skill that has to be mastered to get the ball as deep as possible without goIf in end zone.